El Bulli: Cooking in progress

About the movie

Pictures are taken down and cutlery wrapped up in cellophane foil, as a delivery van is loaded with machines and boxes. In the tiny cove of Montjoi below, waves pound the beach. We are at El Bulli, witnessing the closing of probably the most famous restaurant in the world. Three-star chef Ferran Adrià is widely considered the best, most innovative and craziest chef in the world. In his kitchen, that which was once familiar disintegrates. Each year his restaurant El Bulli closes for half a year – time for Adrià and his team to retire to his Barcelona cooking laboratory to create the new menu for the coming season."Creativity means not copying." Ferran Adrià and his team have made Jacques Maximin’s aphorism the motto of their everyday pursuits. The film El Bulli – Cooking in Progress is the close observation of that quest – from initial experimentation to the premiere of the finished dish. In the course of that process, however, many an ingredient is examined in a totally new way. What novel product can one derive from the sweet potato? Taste and texture are systematically analyzed: by boiling, roasting, frying, steaming – vacuumizing, spherifying, freeze-drying – and then, tasting. On July 30th 2011 El Bulli will have completed its journey as a restaurant and will from then be closed forever.

Participating